Oymyakon, Russia

Imagine a town so cold that low temperatures in the -60s are considered, well, "normal", in the winter months. Yes, you read that right, minus 60s!

The mere mention of "Siberia" is synonymous with extreme cold in the lexicon of meteorologists.

Oymyakon (OIM-yah-cone), Russia, a village of just under 500 residents in northeast Siberia, is widely considered the world's coldest permanently inhabited town.

On Feb. 6, 1933, an observer, there, measured a temperature of -89.8 degrees Fahrenheit! This is a full 10 degrees colder than the U.S. cold record of -79.8 degrees F at Prospect Creek, Alaska on Jan. 23, 1971. (Incidentally, the record coldest temperature measured on Earth was at the Russian South Pole research station of Vostok, Antarctica (-128.6 deg. F) on July 21, 1983.)

According to Weather Underground's Christopher Burt (Wunderblog), unofficial temperatures as cold as -108 degrees F have been measured in Oymyakon. Mr. Burt says there's no record of temperatures rising above zero degrees F between December 1 and March 1!

Even Alaska's coldest interior valleys may only suffer through temperatures in the -40s or colder for, say, a week or two (no minor task, of course) before there's a "warmer" break. No such luck in a Siberian winter!

River valley: Cold air is more dense and, thus, settles into the lower elevations at night.

Surrounded by mountains: Cold air drains down the slopes of the mountains and is trapped in the valley. The mountains form a U-shape, with the open side of the letter "U" pointed north.

Far northern latitude: At roughly 63 degrees north latitude, there's only about 3 hours of sunshine around the winter solstice.

Persistent snow cover: While precipitation is generally light in the moisture-starved frigid cold air mass, what snow does fall, stays put, reflecting the sun's limited energy.

Ironically, the name "Oymyakon" in the native Siberian tongue means "unfrozen patch of water", named for the thermal hot spring nearby.

How does this cold affect every day life? Let's take a look at the resiliency of those who call the "Pole of Cold" home.

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